Flos

ON ST. FLOS, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP, AT POLA IN ISTRIA,

AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Flos, confessor and bishop, at Pola in Istria. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ Sole section. The cult of St. Flos. Whether he was bishop of Emona or of Pola. The fate of his relics.

From the northern part of the Adriatic Sea a huge

peninsula runs out to the south, whose name is Istria; At Pola, whose chief fortunes are reviewed, once part of the Venetian dominion, now of the Austrian empire. There rises there, on a deep bay, not far from the southern promontory, looking to the west, a town most flourishing in the age of the Romans, notable for its amphitheatre and other public buildings [Ant. Deville, Portus et urbis Polæ descriptio, in Burman's Thesaurus antiq., vol. VI, volume IV, at the end.]; but, the air having become corrupted, long since neglected and fallen down Ibid. page 2., except that from the year 1849 its port became a naval base and a bulwark of Austrian power in the Adriatic Sea Moroni, Dizionario di erudiz. eccl., volume LIV, page 15.. Its ancient name was Juliapietas Deville, work cited, page 2. and Colonia Polensis [Seidl, Beitræge zu einer Chronik der archæologischen Funde in der Œsterreichischen Monarchie, in Archiv für Kunde œsterr. Geschichts-Quellen, volume IX, pages 143 and 144.]. Its Christian origins are obscure; but there is no doubt that bishops have held their see there from the remotest times, although none are known who are older than Antonius [Compare Ughelli, Italia sacra nova, volume V, column 475, and Series Epp. Parentinorum et Polensium, 1853 edition.], who flourished at the beginning of the VI century: for King Theodoric addressed a letter to him [Among the works of Cassiodorus, book IV, letter 44, in Migne, Patrologia, volume LXIX, column 637.]. This see is said to have been first suffragan to the patriarch of Aquileia, then to the archbishop of Ravenna, afterwards again to the patriarch of Aquileia: which patriarchate having been suppressed by Benedict XIV, it was made suffragan to the new archbishop of Udine. But in the year 1790 it lost twenty parishes, assigned to the diocese of Trieste, and in the year 1818 it was united to the neighbouring bishopric of Parenzo under the patriarch of Venice; finally in the year 1830 the united sees of Parenzo and Pola were subjected to the archbishop of Gorizia Moroni, Dizionario, volume LIX, page 23.. Both dioceses, however, have not many more than sixty thousand inhabitants.

[2] [St. Flos had a cult formerly on the 27th of October; but now not long ago his feast has been wrongly suppressed] There has long been venerated there St. Flos, who is also called Florus and Florius; whose body too is preserved in the same place from before the memory of man. Ferrari mentions him in the General Catalogue of the saints at the 27th day of October in these words: At Pola in Istria, of St. Flos, bishop of Emonia. And he relates in the same place that he received this from the tablets or liturgical calendar of the church of Pola and from the History of Istria of Nicolò Manzioli of Capodistria. And indeed his feast was once kept on that day, as is established for me from a letter which Angelo Randi, one of the chief presbyters of Pola, addressed on the 10th day of August of the year 1688 to our predecessors, in which he discourses thus on St. Flos: His feast is celebrated in the city on the 27th day of October; and there is some gathering of the people, if account is taken of the fewness of the inhabitants. This celebration, however, was not altogether fixed. For from a letter of Mathias Woutermans, given to Papebroch on the 8th day of October of the year 1685, I understand that a few years before there was written in the Directory of the diocese of Pola the following: On the 26th day of October, at Lavaricum, of St. Flos, bishop and confessor, a double. At Vespers from the chapter of St. Solomon, king of Hungary, confessor. — On the 27th day of October, of St. Solomon, king of Hungary, confessor, a double. But now, like that of St. Solomon, so also the feast of St. Flos is omitted; the cause of which was written to me from Parenzo thus: In the year 1851 — these are the words of a cleric of Parenzo — in which a new reform and reduction of the Calendar of the united dioceses of Parenzo-Pola, for the introduction above all of uniformity between the two dioceses (as far as was fitting), was drawn up and approved by the Holy Apostolic See, it seemed good to omit the office of St. Flos in obedience to the decree of the sacred congregation of rites, given on the 11th day of August of the year 1691, forbidding, with the approval of His Holiness, that by reason of a body or notable relic there be held offices of those saints whose names are not set down in the Roman Martyrology, without prejudice however to the veneration of the faithful due to the said bodies or relics. But, by the leave of those Reverend gentlemen who because of the decree of the year 1691 thought that the office of St. Flos should be omitted, let me be permitted to say that they erred by the whole way. Urban VIII had forbidden that because of the presence of notable relics feasts should be celebrated with an office in other churches than those in which these relics were preserved; and by the decree of the year 1691 it was determined that it was necessary that the relics be of a saint whose name is set down in the Roman Martyrology. But at Pola the natal day of St. Flos was not kept because of the presence of the relics, but as of a proper saint by a most ancient custom; and so the feast had not been intermitted when certain persons had raised the doubt whether the body of St. Flos was really at Pola. Which is so true that, even if the feast had arisen preposterously because of the preserved relics of a saint not inserted in the Roman Martyrology, nay even of cemeterial martyrs (of whom the Sacred Congregation of Rites with full right does not permit offices to be held, unless very many and grave circumstances concur [Decree of 26 November 1678, in Benedict XIV, de Canon. SS., book IV, part II, chapter 28, number 28.]), yet if prescription has come in, nothing may be innovated; as Benedict XIV demonstrated and the Sacred Congregation of Rites itself answered Compare Benedict XIV, de Canon. SS., book IV, part II, chapter 28, number 29.. And certainly it would be worth the trouble to restore the cult of St. Flos at Pola, since it was without controversy legitimate, does not exist in any other diocese, and his name was wrongly suppressed in the calendar proposed for the approval of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Nevertheless the ecclesiastical cult of St. Flos has not altogether perished: for since he is patron of the parishes of Lavarigo and Pomer, his natal day continues to be kept there with solemn offices with an octave.

[3] [The people of Pola held that he was their bishop, and long retained the memory of some of his deeds.] Further, that St. Flos was bishop of Pola was long the constant persuasion of the people of Pola. They relied moreover, and indeed with full right, on an ancient Antiphonary, in which this is very often handed down. Since we shall give it at the end, we shall bring forward in this place only a little. There is read there, then:

The Flower gives its fragrance in Pola,

While he keeps watch over doctrine.

And these others:

The Flower, come forth from the root,

Seeks to make Pola fragrant.

I omit more. This persevering opinion is established also by Ughelli Italia sacra, Coleti's edition, volume V, column 229. in these words: That Blessed Flos was bishop of this church (of Pola) the peoples of Pola affirm, they celebrate his feast on the 27th of October, and they preserve his sacred relics in the cathedral with great veneration of the peoples. The time, however, at which he lived is still obscure, as also his acts. From a letter of Andrea Daniele de Raunach, bishop of Pedena (Pedena is not far distant from Pola, inclining to the summer east), from that letter, I say, written in the year 1675, we have learned what the people of Pola then thought they had found out about St. Flos. Speaking of him therefore according to the opinion of the people of Pola: He, he says, some years of his episcopate having elapsed, with his archdeacon as companion, secretly without the foreknowledge of anyone betook himself to the parts of Palestine to visit the holy places. And many years having been spent in the pilgrimage, the clergy, not knowing of their pastor, at last … came to the election of a new pastor; who was confirmed and installed by the Apostolic See. On returning, however, Florius, on understanding the matter, that he might not disturb his successor, went secretly to a place commonly called Marichie, near Fasana, one German mile distant, close to the sea, under a cave, surrounded by a wood; and he finished the days of his life in penance, the archdeacon always secretly supplying him with food. His death being made known by the archdeacon, the bishop with the clergy and people, a heavenly sign leading the way, went to the place and transferred his body to the city; where with five other saints, namely St. Basil the Great, St. George the martyr, St. Demetrius, St. Solomon, king of Hungary, and St. Theodore, his bones were laid up. Most of these things are read also in those ancient antiphons.

[4] [Others think that he was bishop of Emona. Emona, known to the ancients, was in Noricum near present-day Laibach; in the Middle Ages Cittanova in Istria was wrongly called by this name: St. Flos was bishop in neither.] But with this Cittanova does not agree, commonly Citta Nuova, which likewise is placed in Istria, and also on the western coast of the sea, at the mouth of the river Quieto. For it boasts that it occupies the seat of ancient Emona and that St. Flos was bishop of Emona. But above all it must be observed that it was long ago most luminously demonstrated by Johann Ludwig Schönleben Carniola antiqua et nova, volume I, Apparatus, page 51 and following. that ancient Emona was placed in Carniola at very nearly the place where Labacum, commonly Laybach, now rises; nor does any learned man seem to doubt about that matter any longer [Mentelle, Géographie ancienne, volume I, page 75; Mannert, Geographie der Griechen und der Römer, volume III, pages 693 and 694; Muchar, das Römische Noricum, volume I, page 241 and following; Guibert, Dict. géogr., page 1027.]. And indeed Schönleben brought forward three ancient inscriptions found at Laibach, on which Emona or Emonia is inscribed. The difficulty arising from the statements of Herodian and Capitolinus was altogether disposed of by Cellarius Notitia orbis antiqui, volume I, page 444.. But it is an old error of the Istrians, who think that Emona was only a mile distant from the place in which Cittanova is now placed. What the cause of this error was several have inquired; but what pertains more closely to us is that already in the X century, or certainly the XII, the bishops of Cittanova began to be called bishops of Emona Italia sacra nova, volume V, column 227.. When therefore the Istrians called St. Flos bishop of Emona or Emonia, they doubtless understood this erroneous Emona, which they supposed to have preceded Cittanova in Istria; and indeed, unless documents are older than the coming of the barbarians, that false Istrian Emona is always understood. But no old records are brought forward in which St. Flos is called bishop of Emona. All the others were preceded by Nicolò Manzioli, jurisconsult of Capodistria, in the year 1611, who, speaking of the church of Pola, handed down the following Nova Provinciæ Istriæ descriptio, page 43.: In the principal church there is the chapel of Bishop Ursinus (who occupied the see of Pola from the year 1483 to 1497), and in it the chest, within which is the body of Blessed Flos. He was bishop of Cittanova, and his feast is celebrated on the 27th day of October. Tradition informs us that in the same chest were the bodies of St. Basil the bishop,

Bl. Solomon, king of Hungary, St. George the martyr, St. Germanus the martyr, St. Demetrius and St. Theodore. But those holy bodies were carried off at the time when the Genoese burned Pola, after the Pisans before them had seized it. Next comes Ferrari, who in the Catalogue of the saints of Italy (a work reprinted in the last century with the title Hagiologium italicum) cites first the tablets and ancient monuments of the church of Pola, — in which St. Flos is most certainly not called bishop of Emona, — then the History or Description of Istria, which (as I noted a little before) at the beginning of the XVII century Nicolò Manzioli, jurisconsult of Capodistria, published. But Manzioli is a writer of slight authority, as one who handed down many things about the Istrian saints from common rumour Acta SS. volume VII of May, page 14.. Ferrari was followed by Ughelli Italia sacra nova, volume V, column 229.; who however indicated the contrary opinion of the people of Pola, abstaining from censure. There succeeded the Neotericus of Cittanova (so I find him designated in manuscript Commentaries), who rose up against Schönleben: for he too copied Ferrari, as is clear from the similarity of the words; so that all these streams represent nothing but Manzioli, from whom they have flowed as from a source. Manzioli was followed as guide also by Giacomo Filippo Tommasini, who from the year 1614 to 1655 sat in the see of Cittanova: he spared no labour to receive light from elsewhere: After the coming of Attila into Italy, he says Historici et geographi Istriæ, page 218., who devastated the province (of Istria) and demolished Aquileia, there followed in the churches a long-lasting deprivation of pastors, together with the loss of the writings of this bishopric (of Cittanova), and I find nothing else except that Blessed Florius was bishop, whose body rests in the cathedral of Pola in a certain chapel of Bishop Ursinus, and whose feast is celebrated on the 27th of October. Up to now, however, it has not been given to me to find any writing that would indicate the time at which he flourished. This time was imprudently defined by Pietro Stancovich: In the year 600, he says Biographiæ illustrium Istriæ virorum, volume I, page 218., St. Florius or Flos, bishop of Cittanova, whose deeds and the time in which he lived are entirely unknown. He seems however to have been one of the first bishops of that see and to have had that city as his homeland. His body is preserved in the cathedral of Pola in a chest placed in the chapel of Bishop Ursinus, and his feast is celebrated on the 23rd (rather the 27th) day of October. Manzioli and Ughelli make mention of him. He himself therefore discloses that Manzioli went before him as guide. Finally in these latest times Pietro Kandler, the distinguished archaeologist of Trieste, on the occasion of the solemn entry of the Rt. Rev. Bartolomeo Legat, who now occupies the sees of Trieste and Capodistria, published a book in which he follows the origins and vicissitudes of the churches of the province of Trieste; in which book, when he comes to the church of Cittanova, he relates that it is likely that Blessed Florus was the first bishop of Emona; that on a journey to Constantinople he stopped at Pola, and there died; where too his body rests with the highest veneration of the people and his feast is kept every year on the 27th day of October. But it is manifest that he too treads in the footsteps of Manzioli, and has added nothing of his own but conjectures. Wherefore all those witnesses are reduced to one, whose authority is not great, and certainly cannot be compared with the ancient tradition of Pola, resting on the ancient Antiphonary and the possession of the body. As I understand, however, from a Commentary sent to me from Parenzo, they now seem to be withdrawing there from their former persuasion, since all who have written about St. Flos make him bishop of pseudo-Emona. But the cause of this is that no one of Pola has in the past published books on his homeland, and that he who first published anything about the holy bishop of Pola said that he held the see of Emona, the others, through ignorance of the Antiphonary of Pola, confidently following their first guide. Than which rock none is more frequent, as Baronius often warned, preferring for this reason himself to follow one older author rather than to lend credence to six hundred who repeat the same errors in turn.

[5] [Although other bodies of saints were brought to Pola, the body of St. Flos is not to be reckoned among these.] But I find that another opinion too, altogether different from these, was formerly put forward. Since, namely, in the towns of Istria many bodies of saints are preserved which seem to have been carried there from Illyricum and other places exposed to the incursion of the barbarians, so too the remains of St. Flos, which are kept at Pola, have seemed to a learned man to have come there from elsewhere, whose little writing I found among the remains of our predecessors and who seems to me to be none other than the cited Schönleben; and indeed he considers that the body is that of St. Florus, stonecutter and companion of St. Laurus, who are both venerated on the 18th day of August and suffered martyrdom in Illyricum. But this opinion rests on no documents, but only on conjectures and suspicions. The people of Pola certainly had several bodies of saints, brought from elsewhere, among which are found the remains of SS. Theodore, George and Demetrius, of whom the first is venerated on the 7th day of February, the second on the 23rd day of April and the third on the 8th day of October, and who all three are singular patrons of soldiers warring against the Turks. It is assuredly little probable that these are the genuine bodies of those saints Acta SS. volume IV of October, page 78.; it is far more likely that the people of Pola were deceived by itinerant sellers of relics, against which kind of men the prelates of the Church have so often protested. Nor is the body of St. Basil, bishop and confessor, perhaps of better mark. But of these the people of Pola changed none into a bishop of their city; so that there is no reason why they should rather have dreamed that St. Flos was their bishop. That the people of Pola cannot confirm their traditions from ancient books, moreover, is assuredly no wonder. Ferrari in the Catalogue of the saints added this annotation to the encomium of St. Flos: The Acts of this holy bishop are lacking. For when the Genoese were ravaging Istria, many histories of the saints perished, above all at Pola, which then suffered burning at the hands of the enemy, some bodies of saints being carried off from there and from other places.

[6] [At the beginning of the XV century his body is placed with five others in a marble tomb, and again in the year 1487.] Hence therefore it came about that apart from the Antiphonary there are no records older than the beginning of the XV century by which it is established that the body of St. Flos was in the possession of the people of Pola. But Biagio Molina, who from the year 1410 to 1420 occupied the see of Pola, when he set up a new altar, enclosed within it the bodies of six saints and added an inscription, from which (since it has already been published in our work Ibid. volume VII of September, page 849.) we shall excerpt only these two verses:

The shining altar glows under Blasius of the stock of Molina;

The marble has bones within; behold, you see the figures.

So that from the figures it could be understood which saints were buried there. But in the year 1487 Michele Ursinus, likewise bishop of Pola, when he consecrated this altar anew, placed the bones of the same saints in six little caskets of cypress, and, an instrument having been enclosed in the casket of St. Theodore, he replaced them in the former marble tomb. This is the form of that instrument [Pray, Dissertat. de SS. Salomone, rege Hungariæ, et Emerico, duce Hungariæ, page 20.]: In the name of Christ. Amen. In the year of his nativity MCCCCLXXXVII, in the fifth indiction, on the XVIIIth day of the month of November, the most reverend father and lord in Christ Michael Ursinus, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Pola, consecrated this altar to the praise and honour of the supreme and great God under the title of the saints written below, whose bodies he placed with his own hands in this altar in little caskets of cypress to the praise of God. — The body of St. Theodore, M. — The body of St. George, M. — The body of St. Demetrius, M. — The body of St. Florus, bishop and confessor. — The body of St. Basil, bishop and confessor. — The body of St. Solomon, king of Hungary, confessor. — John de Tombacis of Pola, notary, wrote it.

[7] [In the middle of the XVII century these things were known elsewhere, but uncertain at Pola.] This marble chest, which was at the same time an altar, although it contained the bodies of six saints, they nevertheless called by the common name of St. Flos, because of the celebrity of St. Flos Ibid. page 17.. Without any hesitation, therefore, Ferrari, following Manzioli, wrote in the year 1613 in the Catalogue of the saints of Italy: His body at Pola, where he is thought to have died, is piously preserved and venerated in the principal basilica in a stone chest. Ughelli published volume V of Italia sacra before the year 1653; and he knew that not only the body of St. Flos was preserved there, but also those of five others. The cathedral church, he says In Italia sacra nova, volume V, column 475., is very rich in relics of the saints; which are honourably preserved in a special altar, namely those of SS. Flos, Demetrius, Hermagoras, Fortunatus, Theodore, George, Basil and Solomon, king of Hungary. SS. Hermagoras and Fortunatus are superfluous: yet he had found certain documents outside Pola.

[8] On the occasion of St. Purpurinus, translated from the Roman cemeteries to Pola, But at Pola these things had passed into oblivion. For when Luigi Marcello, who mounted the see of Pola on the 15th day of December of the year 1653, was visiting his church, he noticed with no less wonder than grief of heart that no body of any saint was preserved in it [Instrument of the finding of the bodies of SS. Florus etc., in Pray, Dissertationes, page 17.]. He gave instructions, therefore, to Francesco Bartimora, archdeacon and vicar general, when he dispatched him to the threshold of the apostles, to bring relics with him from Rome. The vicar easily obtained the body of a cemeterial martyr; whom, because they thought that he had empurpled his body by the shedding of his blood, they had called St. Purpurinus. And this St. Purpurinus is still venerated at Pola on the 20th day of November with the rite of a double of the second class, as secondary patron of the city, as is established for me from the liturgical calendar of the year 1853. Care must be taken, however, not to understand Gaet. Moroni, speaking of this St. Purpurinus, as if this man had brought the light of the faith to Pola. It is by no means so, since he is an anonymous Christian, dug out of the Roman catacombs, and recognized as a martyr by the bishop of Porphyreon from a palm, a vessel reddened, or other signs of that kind. The body, therefore, of St. Purpurinus the martyr, which was brought in with pompous solemnity and a gathering of the surrounding peoples, they decided, that it might be put in a worthier place, to bring in and lay in the marble chest which they called that of St. Florus.

[9] the chest of St. Flos is opened, in which his body is found with five others. But since from the acts, testimonies and writings of the most illustrious past bishops, and from the various voices of the people, a doubt was arising: some asserting that the body of St. Florus himself, bishop of Pola, was stored in that chest; others saying that it had been carried off with other relics of saints in the year 1380 by the Genoese, when they, with an armed

force ranging over those seas, devastated that whole province, and in particular Pola; others finally asserting that the remains of Blessed Blasius Molina, bishop of Pola, rested there, and that this was sufficiently understood from the verses incised on the chest; the aforementioned most reverend and most illustrious bishop, himself hindered by illness, wished, to remove the doubt, that the chest be opened by the said Dom Bartimora, his vicar. Bartimora did as he was ordered in the company of many. But hardly had we seen that chest opened and drawn apart, says the episcopal chancellor, when a most delightful and most sweet exhaling odour gladdened all who stood around; and in it were found five chests made of cypress wood, which when unlocked contained the bodies of the holy martyrs Theodore, Demetrius and George, and of the holy confessors Florus, Basil the bishop, and Solomon, king of Hungary; so that the bones of SS. Florus and Solomon were stored in one and the same little box… In the little box of St. Theodore there was then also found the instrument of Bishop Ursinus, which we have given above. The bells were at once rung, the Ambrosian hymn was sung, and the little boxes were put back in the chest Ibid., page cited and following.. The marble urn with the caskets was afterwards placed above the altar, with the inscription: ALTAR OF THE BODIES OF THE SAINTS, and different keys were distributed to the governor of the city, the chapter, the town council and the bishop; as Giuseppe Maria Bottari, bishop of Pola, wrote back in the year 1702 to Cardinal Kollonich Ibid. page 25..

[10] The holy man lived at an uncertain time. When St. Flos lived, however, is altogether undiscovered. Nor does any indication occur in the Antiphonary on which we may firmly rely. He is related, indeed, to have left his diocese and gone on to Jerusalem; which thing in the Latin Church seems to have been often in use toward the end of the VI century. Certainly John the Deacon relates of St. Gregory the Great Acta SS. volume II of March, page 194. that he by no means refused successors to bishops voluntarily renouncing their sees; and at that time, unless they had been consecrated by the Roman pontiff himself, or established as legates or apostolic vicars, bishops renouncing their see were not accustomed to ask leave of the Roman pope [Compare Thomassin, Discipline ecclesiastique, part II, book II, chapter LII, number 4; chapter LVII, number 9.]. This usage too St. Flos followed. But at the end of the IV century St. Justus, bishop of Lyons, made for Egypt Acta SS. volume I of September, page 367 and following., and nearly four centuries later we find St. Ambrose, bishop of Cahors, making for the wastes Acta SS. volume VII of October, page 1042.. And so, as St. Flos could have flourished in the VI century, so also in the IV and VIII. But enough of conjectures.

FOR THE FEAST OF ST. FLOS, BISHOP

Flos, confessor and bishop, at Pola in Istria. (S.)

Antiphons at Vespers.

[1] St. Flos teaches virtue to many at Pola, I. Behold a flower of wondrous fragrance

Given to Pola for its sweet odour;

Whose fragrant men

Change their stain into shame.

[2] II. The Flower gives its fragrance in Pola,

While he keeps watch over doctrine;

Who, despising the mass * of earth,

Gives himself wholly to the divine.

[3] III. The Flower, come forth from the root,

Seeks to make Pola fragrant,

Whose state at that time

Death was seeking to shipwreck.

[4] IV. The fragrance of Flo[s], spread abroad,

Moves many to follow him,

Placing themselves on the right side;

He pledges healing to all.

[5] V. The Flower of the fragrant field

Christ graciously shows forth,

While he illumines with light

The hearts of the hard people of Pola.

At the Magnificat.

[2] devoted to heavenly things and estranged from earthly ones; Devoted to the divine law,

He searched it out of fervour

In such a way that from heaven

He was truly filled;

Nor was he burdened, being thoroughly

Allured by its sweetness.

Alleluia.

At Matins, the Invitatory.

The Flower willed to flower

In the city of Pola,

Who admonished us to be strong,

Casting off the mass of the flesh.

Come.

In the I Nocturn.

At Psalm I.

At Psalm II.

At Psalm III.

[3] he instructs, heals and raises up the Istrians, himself living severely; The pastor given feeds the sheep

Of the Trevistine region ^a,

He puts to flight diseases and weaknesses,

Himself without stain of the flesh.

By word and doctrine Florus feeds

With his zeal

Those whom he saw by a twofold hunger

Fallen in their dancing.

The life of Florus brings forth its birth;

In austere penitence

Scant water, close-measured bread

He takes with good will.

In the II Nocturn.

At Psalm I.

At Psalm II.

At Psalm III.

[4] he goes on to the sepulchre of the Lord to obtain pardon of his sins; Florus began to leave his see,

Being about to go on to the Sepulchre,

That he might be able to engraft himself on Christ,

Being about to die in that same place.

He goes to Jerusalem

In fervour of spirit,

Who knew it was fitting

To choose the best part.

His holy devotion merited,

While he was seeking the holy places,

That the desired washing * of his stains

Christ should grant him ^b.

In the III Nocturn.

At Psalm I.

At Psalm II.

At Psalm III.

[5] [he returns to Istria and at Fasana with his disciples pursues the eremitical life.] Florus, when he came to Pola,

Heard at the harbour things pleasing to him,

He who would gladly enter

The garden, to be comforted in silent mind.

He builds a hamlet for himself,

As a settler of Fasana ^c,

And there he instructs many,

Like a good teacher.

The services of the archdeacon *

Of wonderful devotion

Rendered the benefits

Of the desired greeting ^d.

ANNOTATIONS.

* mole

* lotionem

* Archidiaconus.